Obesity and Being Overweight

Worldwide, about 1.4 billion adults are overweight, of whom 500 million are obese. [1] Compare that to the nearly 1 billion people around the world who are undernourished. [2]

People want to be accepted for being overweight/obese and rightfully so. Nobody should be ostracized for their weight, but being overweight/obese is not a healthy state to be in.

There are many health risks associated with being overweight/obese: high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, joint and muscle problems, increased wear and tear on the body, psychological problems such as low self-esteem, low self-worth, feeling unattractive, depression etc.

What has led to the overweight/obesity epidemic?

1. Social Environment:  We're influenced by our social environment and we tend to get fat in groups [3]. If our social environment is overweight/obese, it influences us to become overweight/obese because we pick up the eating habits of the people around us and our social environment defines the body standard.
2. Bad Habits:  We pick up bad eating habits, which then become a part of our everyday routine. We're creatures of habit - and habit becomes second nature.
3. Sedentary Lifestyle:  Many people live a sedentary lifestyle, with very little physical activity.
4. More Money: Many people have more money, so they use that money to buy more food.
5. More Food:  With improvements in agriculture and food production, there's more food available in various parts of the world.
6. Cheap Food:  Due to aggressive competition in the food industry, food is relatively cheap and affordable.
7. Fast Food: Fast food makes food readily available in a society that's seeking instant gratification.
8. Aggressive Marketing:  We're subjected to constant aggressive marketing tactics, that influence us in a negative way, to buy and eat food that we don't need.
9. Empty Calories:  A lot of food tastes delicious because it's engineered with chemicals to taste that way, but it's simply empty calories. Meaning it's high in taste and high in calories but low in nutritional value.
10. Food Shows:  Food shows and food competitions are popular on television. It's hard not be influence by them. They make us hungry and they influence us to eat more food.
11. Comfort Foods:  Some people eat food to comfort themselves when they're mad, glad, sad, lonely, upset, angry, bored, depressed, happy etc. Today a lot of people feel empty and unfulfilled, and they use food to try and comfort themselves.
12. Food Addiction: Some people are addicted to food in the same way some people are addicted to drugs.
13. Medication:  Some medications make people gain weight, it's one of their side effects.
14. Other:  This list is not exhaustive, I'm sure there are many other reasons.

People do many things to try and lose weight: exercise, diets, specialized weight-loss programs, weight-loss surgery etc. Many people want to lose weight, but it's a constant struggle.

It's difficult to lose weight in a society that doesn't fully support a healthy lifestyle.

Our social environment is driven by people who are immersed in selfishness, seeking to benefit themselves with no regard for others. As such, people are driven to make money even at the expense of other people's health, welfare and well-being.

This has to change. Our internal qualities have to change from selfishness to bestowal and we have to seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.

To see real and permanent changes to our body weight, positive changes (that seek to benefit others) have to be made in agriculture, food production, food processing, food distribution, food marketing, health, transportation, urban planning, environment, education, etc. Round tables should be established to address these issues.

Our focus should be on producing food that is high in nutritional value and on creating social environments that fully support healthy living standards.

Being overweight/obese is a problem today, but we should seek to create a social environment that influences us in a positive way, to have and maintain a healthy body weight.

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1. World Health Organization, Obesity And Overweight, Fact sheet N°311, updated March 2013. This site was accessed November 15, 2013
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html

2. http://carterkagume.blogspot.ca/2013/09/we-have-to-eliminate-starvation-and.html

3. YouTube Video: Social Networks: An Analysis | CrossroadsFilm.com. This site was accessed November 15, 2013.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU74lL_3eQA

Copyright © 2013, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved